Indore district officials saved from embarrassment at the last minute

Officials of the district collectorate very nearly suffered the ignominy of having their assets seized for having failed to pay farmers the additional compensation for the land that was acquired from them to build the Indore by-pass.

Luckily, though, the administration was saved when officials rushed to court and managed to get a month's extension to pay the amount.

Otherwise, the vehicles of the district collector and four other senior administration officers, furniture and other goods at the collectorate were about to be attached on Tuesday.

Advocate PL Choudhary said the attachment order was issued by an additional district judge as the administration failed to pay up the Rs 2 crore due to farmers. The land was acquired in 1989.

Fifteen farmers had been given an initial compensation of Rs 1 lakh per hectare by the collector, but the high court had ordered that the farmers should get Rs 5.5 lakh per hectare, which comes to Rs 2 crore.

The district land records officer Sapna Shivalay said that the compensation has to be paid to the national highway authority, which had made the bypass. "We had written to them earlier and have informed them again to deposit the amount," she said.